Women with silicone breast implants have more non-specific health symptoms

Results of a retrospective electronic health records based matched cohort study

A. LIEFFERING¹, L. RAMERMAN ¹, J. HOMMES ², H. RAKHORST ³, M. MUREAU ⁴, R. VAN DER HULST ², R. VERHEIJ¹

1 Nivel, Utrecht, The Netherlands; 2 Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, The Netherlands; 3 Reconstructive and Hand Surgery,Medical Spectrum Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands; 4 Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

 

Background

• Breast augmentation most popular cosmetic surgical procedure worldwide
• Safety of silicone breast implants under scrutiny
• Possibly a link with non-specific health symptoms: “Breast Implant Illness”

 

Aim: To assess the association between cosmetic silicone breast implants and non-specific health symptoms

 

Methods

With data from the Dutch Breast Implant Registry (2015-2018), 500+ general practices (2014-2021) and Statistics Netherlands (2014-2021), we examined:

• 688 women with cosmetic silicone breast implants; 1301 women without silicone breast implants
• Thirteen non-specific health symptoms registered by the general practitioner
• Symptoms analyzed separately + combined into “substantial symptoms”
• 1 year prior to implantation (baseline) until 3 years after implantation (follow-up)

Substantial symptoms: ≥3 distinct non-specific health symptoms and for at least 2 symptoms ≥2 consultations within one year 

 

Results

Women with breast implants sign. higher likelihood of substantial symptoms…

• …in the three-years follow-up period compared to women without breast implants
• …in the second year after implantation compared to before implantation

 

Conclusion

• These results suggest an association between women who have cosmetic breast implants and substantial non-specific health symptoms
• General practitioners, plastic surgeons and other involved medical specialists should be aware of the possibility of health complaints related to silicone breast implants
• Still more research is needed to explore causality

 

References

Lieffering AS, Hommes JE, Ramerman L, Rakhorst HA, Mureau MAM, Verheij RA, et al. Local Postoperative Complications and Breast Implant Illness in Women with Breast Implants: a Nationwide Registry Study. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(10):1–12.

Yzermans J, Baliatsas C, van Dulmen S, Van Kamp I. Assessing non-specific symptoms in epidemiological studies: Development and validation of the Symptoms and Perceptions (SaP) questionnaire. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2016;219(1):53–65.

de Vries CEE, Kaur MN, Klassen AF, Sommers K, Hume KM, Pusic AL. Understanding Breast Implant–Associated Illness: A Delphi Survey Defining Most Frequently Associated Symptoms. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2022;149(6):1056e–61e. 

 

© 2023 Nivel, PO Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands ž                    

 Contact: Annemiek Lieffering, a.lieffering@nivel.nl